Making and Knowing
A minimal edition of BnF Ms Fr 640

[TOC] | [diplomatic]

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Perfume—makers

They readily make their perfumes with half amber and half musk, and a little civet, because the scent of amber is stronger than the scent of musk.

To save using amber, perfume—makers readily add add a small quantity of musk to the white layers, in order to get a stronger scent. But to remove or hide the blackness of musk, they add a bit of starch from England, which is perfectly white.

To give off a scent of white amber, in the same way that the Portuguese do, take a chunk of amber that you have broken up into pieces. Having put in a small silver porringer a spoon of flower oil, should you not have some, linseed oil. That is to say, use the type of silver spoon one might use at the table. Pour into this your ambergris, then place it on a low fire, it will melt quickly if your amber is of good quality, and there will be no lumps. Having melted it all, put in a small bit of civet, and melt it all and blend it well together. Then take your gloves which you have cleaned and dried properly, and lightly dip the edge of your finger around the edge of the oil, with patience slowly spread the oil along the glove, and rub the glove between your hands and trace along the fingers and its stitches, one after the other. Leave it to dry. Then repeat the previous procedure until you have used up all of the amber.

Spirits

Spirits are excellent for making molds clean, in such a way that where you do not apply some, common sand will attack the figure. But it needs to be passed three times. And because it does not take well on oiled things, I believe it may be best to put some into the water with which you have moistened your sand.